GIVEN [주어진]; EN- [1]

CHAPTER THREE; LOVE AT FIRST BITE

When he'd overheard the conversation between the school nurse and the headmaster, Kim Sunoo had sprinted out the library as fast as his legs could, eager to get to the infirmary. The academy was known for attracting all sorts of drama among itself, but Sunoo hadn't expected to hear of a soulmate bonding, especially since it was only the second period of the day.

Soulmate bonding was very rare for vampires. Often times, vampires lived throughout the centuries without a soulmate because they don't have the power to find one, hence vampires constantly getting married or changing relationships in order to find 'the one', whether it was romantic or platonic. But things were a bit different for purebloods. They had something called love at first bite, which appeared to be the talk of the academy that morning and his best friend was at the center of it all.

Rushing down the crowded halls, he squeezed himself in between the teenagers in the process of switching classes and he knew he was definitely going to be late for his since it was on the west side of the palace like school. When he reached the fourth floor, after running up endless flights of forever shifting stairs, Sunoo was disappointed, but not surprised, to find a crowd of students not only waiting outside Heeseung's dorm, but they were also blocking the entrance to the infirmary.

Mrs Wang, the academies only female dark arts teacher, stood at the door, trying to convince the nosey teenagers to head to their classes. At this rate, Sunoo knew that the classic the I'm-his-friend excuse wouldn't come in handy in this particular situation because Heeseung had somehow become an acquaintance or friend to almost every student, and even the teachers, at the academy.

Reluctantly, he retreated, grabbing from the newly packed stack of the academies paper a copy of the day's biggest story. And on the front cover was what had riled up everyone since the previous night.

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Heeseung tossed and turned in the uncomfortable infirmary bed, struggling to find a position to sleep in. It didn't help at all that there were murmurs outside his door. About what, he honestly didn't know, but he wished they could take the volume down.

The infirmary door swung open, Heeseung throwing the blanket over his head at the sight of Sunoo, who was marching towards him with a copy of the day's newspapers.

"Did you see the story that made it to the front page?" Sunoo threw the newspaper at his friend, pacing up and down the tiny space in the process.

"I couldn't care less about the tabloids Sunoo. I have bigger things to worry about, like why how did I end up in the infirmary?" Heeseung snapped, Sunoo sighing in redo before taking a seat on the armchair.

"Well, from what I heard, someone found their soulmate." Sunoo said, pulling his phone out to play Candy Crush since he could sense that Heeseung wasn't in a talkative mood.

"But that hasn't happened in centuries!" Heeseung exclaimed. "And how in seven hells does that explain why I'm in the infirmary?"

"Yeah. It hasn't happened in centuries." Sunoo shrugged, ignoring the olders second question. "But, this time it's different."

"Different how?"

Sunoo smirked, lowering his phone. "It wasn't a normal soulmate soulmate bonding. It was a love at first bite."

Love at first bite. Heeseung had learnt about those in his Purebloods History class. It wasn't possible for normal vampires to draw blood from purebloods. Instead, they'd die a painful and instant death the second they sank their fangs into a purebloods flesh. If a pureblood attempted to feed off, of another pureblood they'd get poisoned. But if a pureblood sank their fangs into another purebloods flesh and drawed blood, they were soulmates, whether platonic or romantic.

According to the books Heeseung had read, the vampire world had experienced a few thousand soulmate bondings throughout the centuries, but no love at first bites since they believed purebloods were extinct, until now. Heeseung still didn't understand how a scandal about a love at first bite was related to him waking up in the infirmary with no memory of how he'd ended up there.

"How does that explain why I'm here?" Heeseung questioned, pure confusion on his face and Sunoo face palmed.

"Heeseung hyung, I don't exactly know what happened to you last night," Sunoo started in a serious tone. "But, I do know that there are currently only three purebloods in this academy, you, myself and Jungwon. And I'm pretty sure I didn't experience a love at first bite last night."

Sunoo's words rung in Heeseung's head. It was accurate that there were currently only three purebloods in the academy. The three being Heeseung himself, Sunoo, and the most recent addition, Yang Jungwon. And if Sunoo hadn't experienced a love at first bite, it only meant one thing.

Lee Heeseung had found his soulmate, and it was none other than the boy he'd only spoken to for a couple minutes, Yang Jungwon.

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𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐃